Screening

A nice review from Alison Rowat of The Herald newspaper dated 17th February 2011.

"Meet another combo, this time a Scots one, in Jim Hickey’s short but uplifting documentary About a Band (***). The Columcille Ceilidh Band from Edinburgh is mainly made up of musicians with learning difficulties. As Hickey follows them from gig to gig it’s plain that, like every other band, the CCB are in it for the sheer joy of playing and the camaraderie of the road. N/C 18+, Wednesday, 1.30pm, GFT."

And So Goodbye is to be screened at Reel Festivals in May 2011. This is a new arts festival hosting cultural exchanges between Syria, Lebanon and Scotland. The festival will begin in Damascus, move to Lebanon and end in Edinburgh with a changing program of music, film and poetry.

Previous Reel Festivals have focused on Afghanistan and Iraq and have been co-ordinated by Firefly International, Afghan Schools Trust and Edinburgh University Settlement.

The festival, supported by the British Council, will take place for three weeks from 7th May 2011, beginning in Damascus, then moving to Beirut before closing in Edinburgh.

About a Band will be screened at the Picture This International Disability Film Festival, Calgary, Canada on Thursday 17th February 2011.

The film features Columcille Ceilidh Band which uniquely includes musicians with and without learning disabilities. Interviews with the band members show their working relationship and the inevitable tensions which exist within the band, but also the central role that music plays in their lives.

Picture This Film Festival is both a competitive and exhibition festival screening films that are about disability and/or films on any subject that were produced, directed and/or written by people with disabilities. The festival is an initiative of the Calgary SCOPE Society, which is a registered Non-Profit Society.

Breadmakers is to be screened at the Maldon Film Club on Wednesday 2nd February 2011.

The Maldon Film Club works on a membership basis and is run by a committee that selects and screens a programme from the best of recent English and foreign language films at the Maldon Town Hall.

All films commence at 8.00pm unless otherwise stated.

William McLaren: An Artist Out of Time will be screened at the The Foresters Arms, Aberdour, Fife on Thursday 11th November 2010 at 7.30pm.

Edinburgh based filmmakers Robin Mitchell, from Cadies Productions Ltd, and Jim Hickey, from Freedonia Films, will present this fascinating new documentary about the life and times of Scottish painter, commercial illustrator and muralist McLaren. The film follows the work of and hears stories about this remarkable and long-suffering Scottish hero, and will be screened And So Goodbye.

Robin and Jim will take part in a question-and-answer session after the films. Born to a mining family in 1920s Cardenden, McLaren went on to produce work in some of the finest houses in the UK. In 1962 a commission to create a series of paintings for Hopetoun House near Edinburgh was the breakthrough for McLaren, leading to decorative commissions in private houses and public places throughout Scotland and the UK. His illustrations appeared regularly in the 1950s and 1960s in the BBC's Radio Times. He became a prolific book illustrator and designer of dust-jackets for over 150 books.

The filmmakers have traced hundreds of works by McLaren and many of these are included in their documentary, together with testimony from those who knew him. McLaren died in 1987, aged 64, leaving behind a range of work that will surprise and delight many people.

Breadmakers will be screened at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Saturday 6th November with other Scottish shorts.

The screening is part of the IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) which is holding its international convention and artistic showcase in Glasgow on 4-7 November 2010.

This one-off event will see up to 600 performance arts industry practitioners from 45 countries visit Glasgow for a 4-day programme of talks, performances, networking and events.

Breadmakers will be screened at the look&roll short film festival in Switzerland. The festival is organized by Procap, the biggest Swiss self-helping organisation for people with special needs.

look&roll results from a close cooperation with short film festivals all over the world, with universities, distributors and festivals focussing on disability. Out of a shortlist of about 80 entries the programming commission selected 21 contributions from 11 countries.

Breadmakers will be screened on Friday 17th September at 7.30pm and Sunday 19th September at 4.30pm.

This is a review of William McLaren - An Artist Out of Time by Hi-Arts journalist Georgina Coburn.

Georgina Coburn welcomes an important step in restoring the reputation of illustrator William McLaren.

In a world obsessed with the Art of the Now, William McLaren – An Artist Out Of Time raises many questions about Scottish visual traditions and the habitual exclusion of Applied or Decorative Arts from the national canon of Art History. The whole idea of what constitutes Scottish “crafts, techniques and aesthetics as a living tradition” begs further investigation and scrutiny.

This is an article written by the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) entitled Five Questions for Jim Hickey (director, William McLaren: An Artist Out of Time).

When director Jim Hickey investigated the story behind the 1944 short film And So Goodbye, he came away with another fascinating tale – that of William McLaren, painter, illustrator and decorative artist. In William McLaren: An Artist Out of Time, Hickey traces the story of an artist who was ahead of his age in many ways, but who would have been a fascinating character whatever the era.

This was a review of William McLaren – An Artist Out of Time in The Herald newspaper on Thursday 12th August 2010.

William McLaren, An Artist Out of Time (N/C)

3 stars Dir: Jim Hickey.

When Jim Hickey investigated the story behind the 1944 Scottish short film And So Goodbye, he came away with another fine tale – that of William McLaren, painter, illustrator and decorative artist. With the help of friends and contemporaries, Hickey traces the story of an artist who was ahead of his age in many ways, but who would have been a fascinating character whatever the era. Assembled with obvious affection for its subject, Hickey’s documentary is a work that does McLaren proud.

Screening with And So Goodbye, Wednesday, August 18, 8.30pm, Glasgow Film Theatre.